How do you show a current reality?

I am always interested in what other people think of books, movies, TV shows, politics, religion, and more. I often look at the one-star book reviews on Amazon of books I've thoroughly enjoyed to see if a negative opinion should change or modify my positive one.

As I said in my last blog post I was fascinated by Gaia Vince's Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time. I found it a rich, and thought-provoking summary of much recent research into human evolution. And I do agree with the reader who wrote that "Gaia’s wordy prose was frustrating at times. I consistently had to reread sentences. Made the 280ish actual pages a bit of a slow read. But there was a lot of good information to be had."

That's why I was interested in the reader who gave the book one star, writing, "The book is infused with the authors opinion in almost every paragraph occasionally interspaced with scientific data (studies) to 'prove' the author correct. Absolutely no problem with using this approach until.... The author inserts their political viewpoint. The viewpoint is presented in a declarative sentence, "of course I'm right" the author makes you feel. At this point you begin to view the book as not a rigorous scientific work but an op-ed piece. You might as well read the editorial pages of the WSJ or the NYT. It's like Ann Coulter wrote a science textbook. This is the only book in a long time I just stopped reading. Wish I could get my money back."

I'm not sure I understand the criticism. I had no sense that Vince has a political viewpoint that she inserts at all, let alone into multiple paragraphs. Given the river of studies that pour out of worldwide research labs and the number of journals that publish them, it would be humanly impossible to synthesize and incorporate them all in a single book (although that may be what AI will do in the future). Meanwhile, Vince—like any author—has to select and organize her material, and I believe there's a difference between selecting and organizing to convey a current reality—Vince's agenda—and selecting and organizing to promote a point of view.

I'm also not sure how a responsible science writer inserts a political viewpoint. There's bad science and good science, but is there conservative science or liberal science? And if you read a book like Transcendence through a lens of conservative or liberal politics aren't you missing the point? I believe you are. And I feel for readers who are so blinded by political bias, whatever it is, that they cannot see the value, whatever it is, in front their noses.

How people are the same, different, and got here

Gaia Vince's book Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time is fascinating for several reasons. She has synthesized dozens of modern anthropological, sociological, psychological, and environmental studies of populations around the world to write an interesting book of how people are the same and different.

Because I have a vested interest in language and have done (and am doing) my best to add Japanese and Italian to my native English, I was particularly interested in Vince's section on language. Current research suggests that "bilingual people seem to have different neural pathways for their two languages, and both are active when either language is used."

Apparently our brains have evolved for multilingualism which may have been the norm in the deep past. I know that in Japan and Italy there are local dialects so distinctive—another way to say they are another language—they are incomprehensible to an outsider. A speaker must also speak and understand standard Japanese or Italian to function in the larger society.

Multilingualism affects the brain and the sense of self. Ask me in English what my favorite food is and I tend to answer steak or spaghetti. Ask me in Japanese and I automatically think of unagi or tonkatsu. That you gain a new personality with every language you speak is a profound one and is supported by some clever research studies. For example:

"In the 1960s, one of the pioneers of psycholinguists, Susan Ervin-Tripp, asked Japanese-English bilingual women to finish sentences, and found great differences, depending on the language. For instance, 'When my wishes conflict with my family . . .' was completed in Japanese as 'it is a time of great unhappiness'; but in English as, 'I do what I want.' From this Ervin-Tripp concluded that human thought takes place within language mindsets, and that bilinguals have different mindsets for each language—an extraordinary idea but one that has been borne out by subsequent studies."

This fragment may suggest how rich and thought-provoking Transcendence can be. And while it is a book I would not ordinarily have picked off the shelf, I am glad I did. I believe it has opened my mind to a wealth of new—for me—thoughts and ideas.

The start of a two-man Innocence Project

Michael Connelly has published 38 novels. "Ideas come to me in dreams and wake me up. Sometimes, I'll get up in the middle of the night and write them down. I always have a laptop next to my bed. It helps that I don't need a lot of sleep." 

Connelly is best known for his Harry Bosch series, which stars a LAPD detective, now retired after forty years and plagued by a form of bone cancer. He also has a Renèe Ballard series, the first of his female characters to lead her own series and based on a real-life detective he's known for more than fifteen years. And he has the Micky Haller (aka "the Lincoln Lawyer") series; Micky is Harry's half brother and, until the most recent book, Resurrection Walk, they have been on opposite sides. Harry has been trying to put the bad guys in prison; Micky has been trying to keep the unjustly accused out.

In Resurrection Walk Harry is working for Micky as his driver and investigator. While working the other side of the law bothers Harry, he's taken the arrangement so that he is under Micky's medical insurance and is able to participate in a clinical trial that may cure or put his cancer into remission. 

The previous Bosch mystery ended with Harry siccing Micky on the state for convicting an innocent man. By the time this one opens, Micky has obtained the guy's freedom and because of the publicity is knee-deep in letters from prisons in three states from prisoners who want Micky to work his magic for them. He has hired Harry to screen the letters to see if there are any likely candidates for release. 

One of the many elements that makes Connelly such an extraordinary writer is that you do not have to have read any of his earlier novels to understand and enjoy Resurrection Walk. The story grows out of the earlier book but it also stands by itself. Interestingly, it is the first book in which the point of view shifts from Harry's third-person chapters as he investigates to Micky's first-person chapters in court. 

One of the letters Micky has received is from a female prisoner who took a plea bargain to a murder she now claims she did not commit. It raises questions, and Harry and Micky set off after, not just the truth, but for a case that will withstand the state's best efforts to show the woman was always guilty. With the elements of police procedure and courtroom drama, Resurrection Walk has elements to please fans of both.

I have not read every one of Connelly's novels, and taste is subjective anyway, but I believe he gets better with every book. Part of it may be because "Michael does an enormous amount if ressearch to make sure he gets things right," says Asya Muchnick, his editor at Little, Brown. "He holds himself to a high standard. As a reader you feel like you can trust him/" His manager Heather Rizzo adds, "He's tireless. He makes a point of having a lot of breakfasts with cops and detectives, and he listens to everyone at the table, and it comes out in his writing."

At the end of Resurrection Walk Micky has spent a night in jail that has given him time to evaluate his life. He's discovered that helping the incarcerated innocent is in some important ways more rewarding than by using the law to help the possibly guilty evade conviction. I'm looking forward to following Micky and Harry through their next case.